Well fingers is a real spanner man I also need the plus gas a old style in a drip by drip can... and the special spanner from Halfords but as well I use a butane torch cycling the sequence heat the union set torch other side of car park cool by dripping plus gas go for cuppa last union took Friday to Sunday midday.
the tools are more expensive than slave cylinder
if you are really good you can strip out the old pistons and replace all the rubber bits if there are no scratchs or corrission a rubber boot kit may be more difficult to find you need a bottle of meths for this to get everything clean with.
the pivots will need redoing next summer even if you dismantle and applay merest trace of copperslip
id do the leaking cylinder soon.

fingers99 said:

Replace the slave cylinder (you may as well do both sides -- they're very cheap.

Apply plenty of GT 85 or Plus Gas (a proper penetrating oil, not WD40) to the brake pipe union well before hand and use a 6 sided spanner to avoid rounding the nut off. Like this. Halfords do them, too.

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the best way of undoing it (assuming you are replacing the cylinder). Unbolt it from the back plates. Spanner on pipe and turn the cylinder instead!

Ming

Nice one. Ok. Plenty of per lube/penetrating stuff by the sounds of it. I'm off work Friday so ill give it a go then (after repeatedly gt85ing through the week) I've got a mechanic guy who's really cheap and good but I'm kinda enjoying the tinkering.

just about the best car to learn about motors on to be fair, nice and simple but everything you learn translates to other cars too.

Absolutely blu. Used to have a mini. Not much room in the engine bay on them blighters.

i've had one of them too! i had a 1000cc mini mayfair in british racing green, was my second car.

Me too! A mini pick-up was my second car. Slowest car (by some margin!) I've ever owned, but lots of fun.

always quite fancied a fast mini pickup or van tbh. They demand such high prices these days though, even for complete sheds

ycming said:

the best way of undoing it (assuming you are replacing the cylinder). Unbolt it from the back plates. Spanner on pipe and turn the cylinder instead!

Ming

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you need to have more porridge at breakfast I can snap the unions with one hand.

But snapping is just what we're trying to avoid!

which haynes should i get? ive had a search around the forum and the net and would i be right in thinking a haynes for the punto? i think my sei is MPI because its a 2003 model. would i be right? By the way, my mini was an 1100 special edition. 3 clocks on the right of the dash. SEC 83V was the Reg. Silver. there was a good mini shop near Pilling. not sure if its still there now.

cinq haynes covers most stuff you need, and a mk2 punto one will have engine stuff relevant to you.. But you might as well just download the technical manual from the downloads section, it covers everything imaginable once you get used to navigating it.

Stee said:

There was a good mini shop near Pilling. not sure if its still there now.

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It was still there about a year ago when I drove past.

Cheers blue. I got a cd rom with the technical manual but as you say, it's a bit strange to navigate. Ill crack on though.

Ok. So I've messed up doing my cam belt a bit. Put it on (replaced water pump too) lined up the marks on the belt with the marks on the cam and crank, tightened the tensioner then manually turned the engine to make sure the lines still lined up but they didn't! Looking in to it, I don't think I turned the engine enough. So I took the belt back off, turned the crank back to the engine mark and then the cam back to its mark then ran out of time. I think I might have put the engine out so how do I get it right? Is it the Tdc thing? What a tool I am.

deep breath, everything is fine - at least its a non-interference engine and you can't break it.
So long as the the timing marks are in right place your good, stick belt back on and tension it. if you want to turn the engine over after to check just try start the car without putting the bottom pulley back on = no signal from crank sensor so it won't have fuel or spark, will just crank over. Check your timing marks and belt tension again and if all good then put the bottom pulley and aux belt etc back on.

All I do is align the mark on the crank wheel with the mark on the crank case and align the mark on the cam wheel with the mark on the head slip on the belt tighten the tensioner check the marks again and then bolt on the alt pulley and check the motor does not misfire.

Do I not have to make sure the pistons are Tdc or something? Sorry blu.

Right. Tomorrow it is. Cheers chaps.

if the marks are in the right place, its in the right place.